Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for November 27, 2012
Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion. Please forward to friends who need to be informed. This SitRep (Military for “Situation Report”) is created by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or skipped. And I can only spend at most three hours a night pulling stuff, plus the healthcare or economic stuff that crosses my desk at work. As always, I—and you—owe them thanks and appreciation. I post articles because I think they are of interest and will stimulate thought and discussion. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information presented, which is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things that are false, or too far a stretch, regardless of the view point, but I don’t always succeed. As always on the Net, or in the legacy media, you must read critically and with skepticism.
Christmas for that ‘Tween or Teen girl in your life: Advice for my Granddaughter: For When I'm Gone
All royalties go to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.
Blog Page Views
We hit 30,000+ a month over the election month. Last week:
Supreme Court Orders Federal Appeals Court
Excerpt: The Supreme Court has revived a Christian college's challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, with the acquiescence of the Obama administration. The court on Monday ordered the federal appeals court in Richmond , Va. , to consider the claim by Liberty University in Lynchburg , Va.
Dems, GOP signal room for compromise ahead of ‘fiscal cliff’ talks
Excerpt: As they return to Washington
Report: Rep. Capito to run for West Virginia Sen. Rockefeller's seat
Excerpt:
Why is Shelley Moore Capito a target of the far right? By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: You need look no further than today’s headlines for a primer on why Republicans get themselves into trouble in national elections. … But lo and behold the Club for Growth — which backed such stellar (not!) Senate candidates as Richard Mourdock in 2012 and Sharron Angle in 2010 and losers like Mark Neumann (who did a good job beating up eventual nominee Tommy Thompson in the Wisconsin Senate primary) and Don Stenberg of Nebraska — comes out to blast Capito for voting for ”big government.” (They would rather have Harry Reid and liberals in the senate, than RINOs voting Republican to organize, putting conservatives in charge. ~Bob.)
The truth about federal salary numbers. By Andrew G. Biggs and Jason Richwine
Excerpt: First, the pay agent doesn’t consider fringe benefits, even though benefits for federal workers are famously generous. In addition to a 401(k)-type pension with a handsome employer match, federal workers receive a traditional defined-benefit pension — for which they contribute less than 1 percent of salary — as well as retiree health coverage. A Congressional Budget Office study published in January found that the federal retirement package was 2.7 times more generous than what is paid by large private-sector firms.
Test run – nabbing Jesse Jackson Jr’s seat. By Jazz Shaw
Excerpt: What you do instead is bring back a very old, but mostly forgotten idea which we used to great effect in 2010: Precinct Captains. Invest the available resources in identifying one solid Republican in each and every precinct. Get them the data from pouring through registration stats to identify every single Republican and potential independent in the few miles around their house. Help them round up a few friends and quietly begin going door to door explaining the situation. Save your money for the final week before the special election and then hit a direct mail bomb targeting only the people on those lists.
Learning to Love Simpson-Bowles. By Randall Hoven
Interesting comment on this article: "I think the Republicans will be blamed no matter what they do. Except possibly in one scenario. The Republicans adopt the Obama "vote present" strategy. But they make clear what they are for. So the position is this: "We Republicans are for smaller government with real cuts in spending, not lying baseline cuts which are actually large increases in spending. We Republicans are for lower tax rates across the board because the people deserve to keep more of what they spend. We Republicans are for "fairness" in that every citizen should pay something for the government services, so we are for a modest increase on the 50% who presently pay nothing. We Republicans are for a tax system that is understandable, and the current system isn't. We advocate a tax code that takes no more than 20 pages to explain the entire thing. In summary we are for a lower tax on all, except those who are getting a free ride. We are for reducing the size of the current government, which is now consuming almost as much as the private economy creates. But we lost the Presidential election, and the people seem to think that Barack Obama knows more. So, we will defer to the will of the people, though we are in complete disagreement. We will not obstruct the plan the President Obama delivers to the Congress. We will let the Obama/Reid plan pass by voting present. Then the results of the plan over the next two years can be assessed by voters. This next two years will be the opportunity for all to see Barack Obama and Harry Reid and the entire Democrat Party philosophy of taking from the rich, and others, to create big government and how well it works in creating jobs and prosperity. This will be called the test of the Democrat's ability to deliver what they promise. In any event, what follows will be the products of Democrats. So, let's watch and learn. We vote present.” –kentfromohio
Excerpt: Gary Becker and Richard Posner had posts the other day on the “paradox of voting.” Even though these guys may be the world’s two smartest bloggers, I think they both really missed the boat. The fact that millions of people vote on election day is evidence that the private sector can produce public goods. More than that, it is evidence that private production may be superior to public production — a prediction that runs counter to everything you will read in almost any public finance textbook. How do I get from here to there? Bear with me. Here is the paradox of voting: (On November 7, 1972, 40 years ago, I defeated an incumbent Democrat and was elected to the Massachusetts
As Regional Tensions Rise, China Lands Jet on First Carrier
Excerpt: The Chinese military has successfully landed a fighter jet on the Liaoning , China’s first aircraft carrier, according to a report on Sunday by Xinhua, the state news agency. (A Toast: May the Liaonig soon join the Kaga. ~Bob.)
Euro zone to seek Greek aid deal without write-off
Excerpt: Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund began their third attempt in as many weeks to release emergency aid for Greece
Republican and Lesbian, and Fighting for Acceptance of Both Identities. By Sarah Wheaton
Excerpt: In 1996, Kathryn Lehman was a soon-to-be married lawyer working for Republicans in the House of Representatives. One of her major accomplishments: helping to write the law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages. Today, Ms. Lehman, 53, no longer has a husband, and no longer identifies as straight. And she is a lobbyist for Freedom to Marry, which is devoted to overturning the very law she helped write, the Defense of Marriage Act.
The Ghosts of 1938 Still Haunt Our Foreign Policy. By Bruce Thornton
Excerpt: Perhaps the President’s comments were just diplomatic public relations, though they are consistent with Obama’s previous misunderstanding and confusion about the nature of Islam particularly evident in his 2009 Cairo
The Coming Sharia State of Egypt
Excerpt: Egypt
Obamacare Meets Reality. Reality Wins.
Excerpt: The Democrats have their own operating principle: Cargo cult economics. It has many facets but the basis idea is that if the government creates something that is associated with a vibrant middle class then a vibrant middle class will spring from that program as inevitably as Athena sprang from the forehead of Zeus.
Note to the voters
If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. –Anthony Robbins
Excerpt: No surprise here. This is what a truce is for: "If Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.16).
Hamas broadcasts "death to Israel
Excerpt: How they must laugh at the endless credulity of the kuffar.
"They don't care about the people there. They regard them as expendable in the cause of jihad."
Pat Condell.
Fire breaks out at State Department, 3 seriously hurt
Excerpt: Authorities say a fire broke out at the State Department headquarters in Washington EMS spokesman Lon Walls said the fire started at around 11 a.m. Saturday in the ductwork on the 7th floor. Workers were able to put out the fire before firefighters arrived, but not before three people had suffered burns. A tragedy. I understand all the Libya
When the Ends Justify the Meanness. By Bernard Goldberg
Excerpt: Now they’re going after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, not because she went on five Sunday news shows and told a fairy tale about why four Americans were killed in Benghazi
48% Think New Tax Money Will Go to New Programs, Not Deficit Reduction
Excerpt: Voters are a little less suspicious of how new tax revenues may be used. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a plurality (48%) of Likely U.S. Voters continues to believe that if Congress and the president raise taxes to reduce the federal deficit, they are likely to use the money for new government programs instead. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree and believe new tax money raised to reduce the deficit will be used for that purpose.
Obama's Soviet Mistake. By Xavier Lerma
Excerpt: Putin in 2009 outlined his strategy for economic success. Alas, poor Obama did the opposite but nevertheless was re-elected. Bye, bye Miss American Pie. The Communists have won in America with Obama but failed miserably in Russia Russia while America Del
Obama fires 20,000 Marines, promises billions to Muslim green energy
Excerpt: The current political winds in Washington , DC
A re-elected Obama rewards his Big Labor friends
Excerpt: Let no one say that President Obama doesn't remember his friends. Shortly after Big Labor took credit for the get-out-the-vote efforts in key swing states like Ohio , Pennsylvania and Wisconsin
A One-Sided Suicide Pact. By Edward Cline
Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/a-one-sided-suicide-pact?f=must_reads#ixzz2DMEvLMi0
Excerpt: The "treaty" features a series of concessions, not by the Muslims to secular authority, but by the secular government of Hamburg Hamburg Del
Rahm Emanuel To America Chicago Way
EXCERPT: Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Chief of Staff in President Barack Obama's White House, has written an op-ed in the Washington Post advising America , and Democrats in particular, to follow Chicago Chicago
Excerpt: Figures from Statistics Canada, a federal government agency, show 491 babies were born alive following botched abortions during the period from 2000-2009 and left to die afterwards. The numbers have pro-life advocates up in arms. (Died from Obama Syndrome. ~Bob.)
The curious case of the uncrackable World War II code found on a dead pigeon
Excerpt: This was no ordinary pigeon. The bird had a red canister attached to its leg with a secret code inside — 27 groups of five letters each, which has completely stumped Britain 's top code breakers at Government Communications Headquarters and at the prominent Pigeon Museum at Bletchley Park Europe will fall to socialist statism of the Stalin-Hitler-Mussolini variety within 70 years anyway.” ~Bob.)
Twelve men to be executed by Libyan militia for allegedly being gay
Excerpt: Twelve men face mutilation and execution for allegedly being gay after being captured by an extremist Libyan Islamist militia. (Obama insists his Libyan friends allow them to marry before mutilating them. ~Bob.)
2 gang members shot at funeral: 'Please pray for Chicago
Excerpt: Two reputed gang members were shot at a funeral in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side this afternoon, police said, with a minister at the services tweeting afterward, "This is Crazy." (Blacks make us 13% of the population, but according to FBI statistics committee 53% of the murders, with most of the victims being black. 85% in Chicago America
Tweet from Dr. Primate @RowdyPrimate
I bet if we gave Grover Norquist back all the lunch money that was taken from him in his life, he'd forget about the whole tax thing.
Why aren’t Asians Republicans? By Charles Murray
Excerpt: This time I will explicitly offer a broader argument and then give the numbers. My thesis is that the GOP is in trouble across the electoral board because it has become identified in the public mind with social conservatism. Large numbers of Independents and Democrats who are naturally attracted to arguments of fiscal discipline, less government interference in daily life, greater personal responsibility, and free enterprise refuse to vote for Republicans because they are so put off by the positions and rhetoric of social conservatives, whom they take to represent the spirit of the “real” GOP.
Tweet from Dr. Mark Walia @MarkWalia
Today most of the #West's young people are religious illiterates who know almost nothing about the #Judeo-Christian tradition.
Drunk-driving illegal immigrant sentenced to 55 years for killing Houston
Excerpt: Johoan Rodriguez was sentenced to 55 years in prison Friday for the intoxication manslaughter death of Houston
Excerpt: Mark Steyn gave a fantastic monologue subbing in for Rush today, explaining the idiocy of the Buffett rule (aka taxing the rich) and how it would take 514 YEARS for the Buffett rule to pay off Obama’s 2011 deficit.
Tweet from @TheStalwart
If you can't manufacture a crisis out of thin air, you shouldn't be in journalism.
Tweet from Joseph Weisenthal @TheStalwart
A finance reporter recently “assured” me that the next 5 years would be even crazier! Seemed irresponsibly optimistic.
The Mideast menace. ‘Peace process’ is irrelevant. By Benny Avni
Excerpt: The first Israeli-Palestinian skirmish of the post-Arab Spring era is over, and a much-predicted tectonic regional shift has failed to materialize.
Do cigarettes rot your brain?
Excerpt: Need another reason to quit? An alarming new British study links smoking to mental diseases like dementia.
They Are Going To Make It Nearly Impossible To Pass On A Farm Or A Business To Your Children
Excerpt: If you have a farm or a small business, would you like to pass it on to your children when you die? Well, unless Congress does something, it is going to become much, much harder to do that starting next year. Right now, there is a 5 million dollar estate tax exemption and anything above that is taxed at 35 percent. But on January 1st, the exemption will go down to 1 million dollars and the tax rate will go up to 55 percent. (This looks like another "bright idea" that has consequences that will be extremely negative in their effects on people. There are lots of small farms and businesses that are worth 2-20 million dollars, and this law will devastate the families' trying to pass things on to the next generation. --Del)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment